Hair loss really rocked me. When I heard about there being a possibility of me trying out a ‘real hair’ wig from a charity I jumped at the chance. I would recommend any young boys/men to seriously consider getting a real hair wig to give you some confidence back...

My name is Regan Walker. I was signed as a professional footballer at the age of 17 ½ following a successful 2-year scholarship with Bury FC. Approximately 6 months into my professional career I started having pains in my right thigh, which started to keep me awake at night. At first I thought that if these pains were the after effects of the hard training sessions through the day then I was prepared to live with it. The pain became ever-increasing to a stage that I passed out.

After a lot of toing and froing from one physio to another I was formerly diagnosed with a rare cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma in my right distal femur at the age of 18 ½.

The tumour was situated centrally to my right distal femur which required 12 months of intense chemotherapy, 6 weeks of daily radiotherapy and 2 major operations which involved the removal of the tumour, entire femur, knee and surrounding muscle tissue that had also been infected, 10 months of immunotherapy followed by a year of physiotherapy.

This signified the end of all my dreams as a footballer. I had shoulder length hair at the time which had taken me a couple of years to grow to the desired length, this was a major factor in my confidence as image and appearance meant everything to me and I knew hair loss was inevitable which really rocked me. I knew this was going to be particularly hard for me to deal with as a teenager/young adult male. I would presume this would also be just as hard to deal with for young/adult females of all ages losing their hair too. I loved my hair and when the inevitable happened my confidence took a massive knock. I had no confidence although it was a very small price to pay on the long road to recovery. It was a difficult thing to deal with - along with everything else.

When I heard about there being a possibility of me trying out a ‘real hair’ wig from one of the nurses at the Christie, I was excited and wasted no time in pursuing this opportunity. This was when I found out about the charity and what it was they did for patients like myself.

A phone call was made to Wendy who was extremely pleasant and very helpful and before I knew it I was arranging to have a real hair wig fitted at Trendco in Manchester. I was pleasantly surprised at how real the wig looked in comparison to my own hair and couldn’t quite believe it. It made such a difference in giving me at least some confidence back since losing my hair and a welcome change from constantly wearing a hat. I would personally recommend any young boys/men to seriously consider getting a real hair wig, there’s no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed in wearing a wig.

Losing your hair is a hard thing to deal with and especially when there is a lot on your mind when going through treatment, so even if it’s the smallest of differences to give you some confidence back then it’s more than worth it.

The charity is amazing. It's a great bunch of people who put their time and effort into helping boys and girls going through a very difficult period in their life and I can’t thank them enough for what they have done for me and continue to do for others.